Best known internationally for Luciano Pavarotti's popular renditions of the aria Nessun Dorma, Giacomo Puccini's Turandot is based on the Persian fable of a cruel Chinese princess and is set in a non-descript, legendary past.
The Ups and Downs of Turandot in China
China's attitude towards Turandot has changed remarkably over time. The opera was banned for decades because of its unfavorable portrayal of some brutal practices in ancient China. Then, in 1998, the Turandot production staged by Zhang Yimou in the Forbidden City's Taimiao temple became a standard for Chinese national pageantry.
For a strange twist of fate, the next step in this twisted relationship comes at a time when China is a under the media spotlight for two contrasting reasons: the upcoming Olympics and the growing political tension over the controversial Tibetan issue.
An Original Production for Puccini's 150th Anniversary
Ten years after the Taimiao Turandot, for seven performances starting March 21, 2008 the futuristic National Centre for the Performing Arts (formerly known as National Grand Theatre) in downtown Beijing housed a lavish production featuring a brand new finale written by 36-year-old Chinese composer Hao Weiya, who studied extensively in Italy and developed an affinity for the country’s musical lyricism.
The NCPA Turandot was co-produced with the Puccini Festival Foundation and is part of the official celebrations for Giacomo Puccini's 150th birthday anniversary (he was born in Lucca on December 22, 1858).
Turandot was Giacomo Puccini's last piece of work, left unaccomplished when he died on November 29, 1924 after being unsuccessfully treated for throat cancer in Brussels, Belgium. Puccini's pen reached Act 2, before the opera's dénouement.
Giacomo Puccini's Unfinished Score
However, he left some thirty pages of notes and sketches which his colleague, Franco Alfano, was commissioned to use to complete Turandot. Though director Arturo Toscanini - who had supervised Alfano's work - chose to stop the orchestra where Puccini's music ended when Turandot premiered in Milan on April 25, 1926, Franco Alfano's full-length score has since become the normal version performed worldwide. 75 years later, the Festival de Musica de Gran Canarias asked Luciano Berio to write a new finale.
Turandot's New Finale by Hao Weiya
Hao Weiya is the third composer to attemp a finale for Turandot. Like Alfano and Berio, Hao Weiya based his composition on Puccini's own extant notes. Yet Hao Weiya's 18-minute score includes a new aria, two new characters and a reprise of the Molihua (or Mò Li Hua, meaning Jasmine Flower) theme, a popular traditional Chinese folksong which Puccini quoted in Act 1. Interestingly, Hao Weiya's addition was called a 'sequel' and not a 'finale' by the Chinese press, setting this ending apart from the main body of the opera.
Maddalena Delli - Maddalena Delli is an Italian freelance journalist and professional travel writer who also enjoys blogging, web design and photography.
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